New Purge System Removes Excess Oil
At its plant in Charleston, S.C., the Bosch Group, global supplier of automotive, industrial, and building technology, was having trouble maintaining sufficiently low temperatures in each of seven 1,000- and 1,250-ton chillers. One chiller in particular was underperforming. ...
Improving Efficiency With Variable-Primary Flow
In 2007, a partnership was formed by the city of Lansing, Mich.; the state of Michigan; Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America and its parent company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; developer and construction manager The Christman Co.; Lansing Economic Development Corp.; and Lansing Board of Water & Light (LBWL) to renovate the decommissioned Ottawa Street Power Station in Lansing into Accident Fund’s new world headquarters. The partnership required LBWL to construct a separate plant to provide chilled water, which previously was supplied by equipment in the Ottawa Street Power Station’s basement....
An Update on the EPA's Final Ruling on R-22
It is no secret that R-22 refrigerant is going away. What members of the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry may not be aware of is that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) hydrochlorofluorocarbon- (HCFC-) allocation final rule, signed Dec. 7, 2009, further reduced R-22 supply by 150 million lb....
Simplifying the Selection of Rooftop Units
An engineer is calculating the cooling load for each room to be served by a new rooftop unit. Solar and transmission heat gains through the windows, walls,...
New High School's Hybrid HVAC System Features Single-Pipe Hydronic System
Built in 1938, Waterloo High School in Waterloo, Ill., part of Waterloo Community Unit School District No. 5, had become seriously overcrowded. In 2006,...
Optimizing Dedicated Outdoor-Air Systems
Though vital to maintaining good indoor-air quality, outdoor air can be expensive to temper and, if not conditioned properly, cause humidity problems...
Keeping Cool
Three facilities a warehouse, forge plant, and paint-preparation area had complaints about excessive heat in working areas. I recommended that air be...
Turnkey Capabilities Keep Guests Comfortable, Construction Going
During the summer of 2005, The General Theological Seminary began renovating three of its buildings in New York's historic Chelsea neighborhood to house...
Infectious-Diseases Doc Available From ASHRAE
As health and school officials deal with a second wave of the H1N1 virus (swine flu), new information on health consequences of exposure to airborne infectious diseases and implications for the design, installation, and operation of HVACR systems is available from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)....
Rethinking Central Utility Plants
Times have changed and so have the buildings in which we live, work, and teach. They have become more energy-efficient because of better facades and more sophisticated HVAC, electrical, and automation systems. But what about the central plants that produce the heating and cooling delivered to these buildings? How have they evolved over the years? Are they serving us in an efficient, sustainable manner? ...
Behind the Lines of Temperature Wars
A report examining the most common thermal complaints made by office workers and the variety of ways facility professionals respond to them is available for free download. ...
System Differences
This article uses the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers variable-air-volume (VAV) system as an example. This is...
Networked Thermostats Help Church Realize Significant Energy Savings
Located in Cary, N.C., Colonial Baptist Church consists of five multipurpose buildings (Figure 1) that employed a combination of standard and programmable...
CFD Aids School Districts' Utilization of Thermal Displacement Ventilation
School districts in Southern California are looking to increase the number of their schools that have air conditioning in an attempt to improve learning...
Cooling Health-Care Technology
The one constant about technology is that it always is changing. Two major categories of technology in health-care facilities are information-technology (IT) and procedure rooms. This article will discuss the cooling of IT facilities and highlight some of the differences between IT facilities and procedure rooms. ...
Converting From Primary/Secondary to All-Variable Flow
The control of all-variable-flow chilled-water systems is thought to be so complicated and, thus, difficult for operators to understand that many engineers and designers resist converting their primary/secondary systems, even though the return on investment of such a conversion is measured in weeks, rather than years, with chilled-water-plant energy consumption reduced by at least 10 percent and often by 20 percent or more. ...
Finding the Right Equipment
I designed an HVAC system for a large electronics store in midtown Manhattan, a fast-track construction project that was supposed to be completed during...
Solving Problems Off the Clock
When I checked into my room in one of the largest hotels in Las Vegas, the room was too warm, but the vertical chilled-water fan-coil unit was running...
VRFZ System Meets Hospice's Need for Simultaneous Cooling, Heating
Owned and operated by Share Foundation, a not-for-profit public charity, Life Touch Hospice in El Dorado, Ark., opened its 16-bed John R. Williamson Hospice...
With Air-Intake Filters, Automaker Keeps Cooling Tower Free of Debris
At a major automotive assembly facility, cottonwood seed, insects, and other debris were getting drawn into the cooling tower, building up in the fill...
APC Wins Green Award
APC by Schneider Electric has announced it was selected as a winner in the Energy Efficient Products category of the 2009 Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards, presented by the Uptime Institute and co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. ...
AHRI to Launch Refrigerant-Phaseout Website
AHRI recently announced an April 29 launch of a Web site, www.PhaseOutFacts.org, designed to reduce confusion regarding the phaseout of HCFC refrigerants. ...
Flood!: War Stories - April 2009
Flood! A few friends came over for a dinner party. With the first hot weather of the season, the air conditioning was especially welcome. Cleaning up,...
Preparing for the Hydrochloroflurocarbon (HCFC) Phaseout
The HCFC phaseout means that new equipment will be designed to work with refrigerants other than R-22, and therefore, it is important that building owners receive heating and cooling systems that are compliant and affordable to maintain....
Codes & Standards - April 2009
ASHRAE The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recently announced the publication of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard...
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